More trade: India may cut sensitive import list by 30%

NEW DEHLI:

India’s Commerce and Industry Ministry plans to shorten its sensitive list of imports from Pakistan by up to 30% soon.

India’s sensitive list of Pakistani imports has 878 items, mostly textiles and chemicals products, which attract high import duties. “We may knock off some 263 items from our sensitive list,” a senior official of the Department of Commerce told The Indian Express on Tuesday.

The sectoral break-up of the items will be firmed up during commerce secretary-level talks in the second week of April. “Details will be chalked out during our talks with Pakistan’s Senior Minister of Commerce Makhdoom Amin Fahim and Commerce Secretary Zafar Mahmood, who will be here for [the] Pakistan Expo,” the official said.

Indian and Pakistani officials will inaugurate the newly built integrated check-post along the Wagah-Attari border on April 13.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 4^th, 2012.